Telangana Government Plans to Increase Palm Oil Acreage

Hyderabad: Agriculture minister Tummala Nageshwara Rao asked the officials of Godrej Industries who met him on Wednesday to increase the pace of setting up palm oil processing units in the state. He also asked them to ensure that an additional 15,000 acres are brought under oil palm cultivation and assured them of help from the government.

Godrej Industries group president Rakesh Swamy explained to the minister that they have taken up programmes to expand oil palm cultivation in six mandals of Khammam, four mandals of Kothagudem and the Sangareddy district. He informed that the company had grown oil palm on 13,869 acres in 2023-24 and had set a target of 9,000 acres this year.

Swamy said the company has 8.67 lakh oil palm plants ready for plantation and their company was giving Telangana the top priority. The company has so far been given 180 acres of which 114 have been handed over to it. For the remaining 60 to 65 acres preliminary notices have been given. The company representatives sought the minister’s help to speed up the land acquisition process.